


Strawberries & Cigarettes

by sharptheshoots



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 04:21:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14947487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharptheshoots/pseuds/sharptheshoots
Summary: Lance has been on the run his whole life, never really had the chance to settle down. To make friends, that is until Coran Smythe asks him to join the Altea State Lions, a team of rejects.-----------------------------------------Based on the All For The Game series by Nora Sakavic.





	1. run boy run

**Author's Note:**

> I try to make this as original as possible but you might recognize some lines from the original books. If you've not read them I 100% recommend them.

Ice hockey had always been the one consistent thing in Lance’ life, he’d been on the run since he was 13. Up until last year he had been accompanied by his mother, nowadays he was all alone. The fact that nobody had caught onto him by now was quite the miracle to him, but he was cautious; did everything his mother had learned him. Never stay in one place for too long, don’t do something that will get you noticed and most importantly don’t visit a place you’ve already been to.

Over the years Lance had not only seen almost every state in the US, he’d traveled to Spain, France, Mexico, Germany and more countries. It was safe to say he’d been all over the world, when his mother was still around he wasn’t allowed to play ice hockey in school but at home or wherever the place was they were staying he was allowed to do so. Maybe not ‘ice hockey’ but hockey in general.

Today was the last qualification round for the nationals and to both Lance’ disappointment and relieve they lost, he’d loved it in Grantsville, Utah but he was also well aware of the fact that he had to leave the place sooner or later. Rather sooner than later.

He was packing his stuff when his coach, Mr. Thace entered the locker room. ‘’Lance, I have someone here who wants to speak with you.’’

Those were words he dreaded, no one was supposed to know about him he was supposed to be invisible. ‘’I actually have to be home in 10 minutes.’’ A lie, he didn’t have a home. He lived in a self-storage by himself. ‘’Your parents didn’t show up again, I thought with this being the last match they might show up.’’ Thace started. ‘’No one knew this was gonna be the last match, my dad’s out of town and my mom had to work late.’’ Lance mumbled.

Thace sighed, ‘’Either way, I have someone who wants to speak with you. He is a college scout and he has interest in you.’’

College, he’d always dreamed of college but it was just too dangerous. College meant he had to settle down, college meant he had to stay in the same place for over at least 4 years.

‘’I’m not interested.’’ Lance said, as firm as he could. ‘’Just give Smythe a chance, he has his ways to change your mind.’’

Lance soon realized there was no way out of this, Thace wasn’t about to let him leave. He sighed and Thace’ eyes lit up, ‘’He’s on the bleachers waiting for you.’’

As soon as Lance reached the bleachers he realized who was in front of him, Coran Smythe. Coran Smythe, coach of the Altea State Lions. The Altea State Lions have a reputation for being mentally unstable and are the laughingstock of the states.

Another fact about the Lions was that Lance had known one of the players on the team when he was younger, reason number one to turn around right the second and move out of Grantsville while he still had the chance.

‘’Ah! You must be Lance!’’ Too late, Coran Smythe’ words echoed through his head. ‘’I am Coran Smythe, but you can call me Coran.’’ He offered Lance a hand and the boy absent mindedly shook it, ‘’Lance McClain.’’ He mumbled.

‘’I suppose Thace already told you why I’m here?’’ he started, ‘’Just that you were a college scout, sir.’’ Lance said. Even though he knew exactly who the man in front of him was, he decided to play dumb.

‘’Well son, have you heard of the Altea State Lions?’’ he asked, Lance nodded everyone knew about the Lions. Everyone also knew about the coaches mission, the mission to give athletes from a broken home another chance, functioning as a "half-way house". Unfortunately, this made them a hard team to train, because the players didn't harmonize easily.

‘’I am the coach of the lions, as you also may have heard I am short on forwards next season and when I came across your file, I was intrigued. That is why we flew out here today, to see your game that is. Your coach send me video recordings before but we wanted to see you play in real life before we made our final decision.’’ Coran explained.

It took Lance a moment to realize what Coran just said ‘’We? Is ‘he’ here?’’ and with ‘he’ Lance meant Takashi Shirogane. Takashi Shirogane or Shiro, used to play for the Galra.

The Galra was America’s best college ice hockey team, a team that only existed of elite players. Shiro was one of the elite, easily the best in the states, he was the Champion; that was up until two years ago when Shiro lost his arm in a car crash. Losing an arm forced him to lose his contract with the Galra, he went off the map for a while and after about a year Coran announced on live television that Shiro started co-coaching the lions.

‘’You mean Shiro I suppose?’’ Coran smiled, probably thinking Lance was a big fan. ‘’Yes.’’ Lance choked. ‘’He is in the hall, but I am not here to talk about Shiro. I am here to talk about you. Thace told me about you, he says you might not have the best home situation.’’ His voice was friendly but Lance wasn’t falling for it just yet, ‘’I have the contract with me, sign with me and you’ll be out of this town. I can fly you out to Los Angeles by the end of this month, the day after graduation if you want.’’

Abort mission. No. ‘’I am not interested.’’ Lance said. ‘’Why? Most kids your age would jump at an opportunity like this.’’

‘’I..’’ Coran was right and he knew, Coran knew he was right. ‘’I’ll have to run this by my parents.’’ Lance decided. ‘’What for? You’re legal, aren’t ya?’’ Coran raised an eyebrow. Lance was 18, but he wasn’t going to tell Coran that his paperwork was forged.

‘’I’ll still have to ask.’’ He insisted. ‘’We’ll give you a ride home, so you can sign the paperwork tonight.’’ Coran said. ‘’That won’t be necessary.’’ Lance said, where would they drop him off? The self-storage? ‘’Should one of us talk to your parents?’’ who does he want to talk to? ‘’It’ll be fine.’’ Lance said.

‘’Are they the ones who hurt you?’’ Coran said out of the blue. Lance stared at him at a complete loss, it was so blunt he didn’t have the right response for Coran. ‘’Let’s try that again, Thace told me you spend the night here from time to time, it’s an assumption and I don’t know if I’m correct but I have experience with your kind and something tells me he’s not that far off.’’ He paused seeing if Lance was still following, ‘’Either way, locker room is going to shut down once the summer comes around and like I said, I can fly you out to Los Angeles the day after graduation.’’

Lance slowly nodded, he had the feeling there was no way out of this. ‘’Shiro’s lot stays in town for the summer, so you can meet them early. The others are out of town but will return once summer comes to an end. We’ll tell everyone you’re in town for early practice.’’

‘’So I’ll ask again, are your parents going to be a problem?’’ Coran asked and Lance knew there was no way out of this. ‘’No.’’ Lance sighed.

‘’I’ll fly you out to LA the day after your graduation, welcome to the Altea State Lions Lance.’’ 


	2. young and menace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance arrives in LA, Keith smokes a cigarette, Lance meets part of the team and of course his childhood acquaintance.

Flying was always risky and airports freaked him out. There was security everywhere and well, his paperwork was forged. Even after his mother had passed away he still had his mother’s connections which meant he knew his paperwork was believable to say the least. However that didn’t mean Lance didn’t have a minor panic attack every time someone asked for his paperwork.

The flight lasted only two hours but Lance was happy to get off the plane, being stuck in such a small space without a way to escape made him feel nauseous. LAX was huge, even though he didn’t really expect to see familiar faces at an airport this big it never hurt to be cautious and check.   
After double checking Lance allowed himself to follow the signs down the big hall towards the Arrivals. The lobby was quite crowded, which was understandable since the vacation just started meaning there were people leaving to go away for summer break but also a lot of people were arriving to spend the summer in California. Even though Lance had been to California before he’d never been to Los Angeles specifically, small towns were more on the down low and thus safer.   
Coran had promised him he would take care of the ride from LAX to Altea State or at least his house, Lance would be staying with Coran and his niece the summer.  
Spotting the ride was easier than expected and it surely wasn’t the bright red sports car that caught his attention, no it was the person standing beside it. _Keith Kogane, the Lions’ freshman goalkeeper and probably their deadliest investment. Rumor had it that Keith had spent three years at a juvie facility and barely avoided a second term._

The raven-haired boy just gave him a once over and lit up a cigarette, and he was probably waiting for Lance to come over to him. On his way over he took his chance to inspect Keith, the other boy didn’t seem to notice. His hair was tied up into a ponytail, he was wearing a grey tank top, black ripped jeans and black leather boots. ‘’Lance?’’ the boy spoke up as soon as Lance had reached him, it had been years since people he’d never met knew his name so it took him a second to collect himself ‘’Lanc- eh.. yeah. That would be me.’’ He offered Keith a hand but the other just looked at it and pushed himself of the red car he’d been leaning on. ‘’Baggage claim?’’ he raised an eyebrow, ‘’This is all of it.’’ Lance said while motioning at his duffle bag.

Keith didn’t seem to care enough to ask why it was just a duffle bag and shrugged, making his way around the car to get into the driver’s seat. Lance hesitantly got into the passenger’s seat not quite sure what he had to do, was he supposed to talk to the other boy?

Keith waited till his cigarette had burned down before he started the engine, before driving away he glanced at Lance and Lance suddenly felt very much stuck in the car, was there enough oxygen? No, he could feel it. There was definitely not enough oxygen. ‘’Lance McClain,’’ it almost sounded like he was testing his name, testing the way it sounded and Lance flinched by his voice ‘’You’re also staying here for the summer?’’ he asked. Lance nodded, when Keith didn’t respond he realized they had started driving and Keith had his eyes on the road. ‘’ Yes, Coran said it was okay.’’ He then said. ‘’That’ll be a total count of six then, but word has it you’ll be staying with Coach and Allura.’’ Lance wasn’t sure if Keith was asking or just stating a fact, so he just hummed a yes. Allura, Coran’s niece and the captain of the Lions. Lance has seen pictures of Allura and she was stunning, every guys would be lucky to end up with a girl like her yet, love was not something Lance had ever had the time to think about. Well it was there, but it was like a mirage. He knew it existed, he knew his mother had loved him and he loved her and of course he once kissed a girl at middle school but that was a bet and Lance had lost.

Lance had been informed that a few other students would be around as well, Allura his niece of course, Keith Kogane, Takashi Shirogane, Matthew Holt and Katie - or rather Pidge - Holt.

As soon as they reached the highway Keith seemed to think they were driving to slow and he stepped on the gas, maneuvering past other cars that were apparently driving to slow. It was safe to say that Lance was terrified, his whole life he’d been on the run, trying to stay alive and this was it, this was what was going to kill him. Keith either didn’t notice the terrified look on Lance’ face or he just simply didn’t care. ‘’ _Don’t be afraid of dying,_ ’’ Keith started ‘’ _If you are, you have no place in our rink._ ’’

Lance opened his mouth to say something but he decided to keep quiet and just focus on the cars they were passing by. Focusing his thoughts on the fact that he’d be eye to eye with Takashi Shirogane again after so many years. Ever since the car crash Shiro had been signed with the Lions as their assistant coach. Everyone had expected that Shiro would return to the Galra eventually, he got a prosthetic and was learning how to play ice hockey again. Expect Shiro didn’t return to the Galra, he signed with the Lions as their forward. His fans and the fans of the Galra in general were offended to say the least, Altea had been the victim of the anger and rage of the Galra fans. Both the university and the Lions stadium also known as ‘the Castle of Lions’ had been vandalized multiple times.

Sooner than Lance had expected they reached Coran’s home, Keith parked his car in the driveway and got out without saying a thing. When he got out of the car he noticed that Keith was meeting with other people at the front porch of Coran’s house. He recognized Shiro the minute he saw him, he’d matured but Lance would never forget that face. Slowly Lance approached the others, the first one to step up to him was actually a big guy and Lance recognized him as Matthew Holt, he looked genuinely happy to see Lance. ‘’You must be Lance! It so nice to finally meet you, I’m Matthew but everyone calls me Matt!’’ he unlike Keith reached out to Lance and offered him a hand, which Lance took ‘’Lance McClain.’’ Matt gave him a gentle smile, ‘’So you’ve already met Keith,’’ Lance nodded ‘’I think introductions would be nice so, this is my sister Katie but we all call her Pidge, ‘’ Pidge was a small girl, hair chopped short and glasses ‘’Hi!’’ she like Matt didn’t seem to be so bad, but looks can deceive. ‘’They beautiful lady right there is Allura.’’ He continued and Lance eyes traveled to Allura, she was even more stunning in real life ‘’It’s so nice to finally meet you Lance!’’ she like Matt offered him a hand, Lance could hear the strong British accent in her voice, ‘’Nice to meet you too.’’ He managed to choke out, very smooth Lance, very smooth. ‘’And last but not least, Shiro, but I think you’ve already heard of him.’’ Matt said.

This was what Lance was dreading, he had to look Shiro in the eyes and there was no way in hell Shiro wouldn’t recognize him. Shiro offered him his hand as well, it was his prosthetic. Lance looked at it for a few seconds and then looked up to Shiro, looked im in the eyes. He was ready, ready for the shock on Shiro’s face as soon as he realized who Lance actually was but the shock never came, instead he gave him a gentle smile. ‘’Glad you’re joining the Lions, I’ve seen you play; you’re a good addition to the team. I hope Keith didn’t scare you too much with the drive over here, he has a lot of road rage.’’   

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @ everyone, Hunk won't make an appearance yet bc I want kind off chose him as the Matt Boyd of this story. I didn't want to give him a bad home situation cause that, in my opinion, just doesn't fit is character well. I hope you all like it, so far. :)


End file.
